Interesting point here about the dominant #urbandesign suburban land use style here in smoky #NorthAmerica : single exit SUV-dependent designs introduce a single point of failure in an emergency. The recommended emergency evacuation strategy here was for everyone to rush onto the streets at the same time, shutting down the streets until fire crews could come to bulldoze all of the abandoned vehicles. #disaster #cardependency #waroncars #evacuation https://www.firerescue1.com/wildfire-and-wildland-urban-interface/dozers-push-through-abandoned-cars-as-thousands-flee-from-l-a-wildfire

@babe Careful, this may be a gateway drug to playing Go https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)

@dalias No please. As an aside I was visiting family recently and they were offering novelty Trump toilet paper in the restroom. In my experience at least the presence of Trump’s face did not improve the overall project.

Not perfect but there are some things I like about this #flag redesign proposal for #virginia https://www.reddit.com/r/Virginia/s/Yax7BenP8C #vexillology (yes, non Virginians, we enjoy nudity and murder on our state flag, why don’t you have nudity and murder on yours?)

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/walmart-prices-poverty-economy/681122/ “Walmart makes the places it operates in poorer than they would be if it had never shown up at all” #economics #monopsony #poverty #localfood #walmart

@skinnylatte mm, you taste the absence of sodium

"People need to know that regardless of what happens in D.C. that their local government will be there for them" Thanks to Mayor Wade and Councilor Pinkston for working to keep that #publicservice promise in #cville https://open.substack.com/pub/communityengagement/p/december-9-2024-pinkston-and-wade

I’m planning a new course for next semester and I have a lot of readings. I prefer to just assign readings and not micromanage my students, but I am told and have experienced that if I don’t, the students just don’t do the readings. I find this baffling. I am tentatively planning to force graded short response papers to each reading but A. I hate reading and grading them and B. I am concerned they can be done by AI. How are others thinking about this? @academicchatter #academicchatter

@BrentToderian A bunch of architects and planners whose views I'm interested in recently jumped from Twitter to Bluesky. I don't understand all of the dynamics but I see what you see

As we in the U.S. enjoy the last moments of #freetrade for some period of time, I'd like to point out that we had this same #tariff mania over a century ago and discovered that it was a disaster. The definitive book on the subject was written by a writer named #henrygeorge . The book was called "Protection or Free Trade". I did not imagine that this 1886 book would be necessary reading in my lifetime #economics #protectionism #history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_or_Free_Trade

Good morning America. Let’s make this a good day. 🇺🇸 https://vote.gov #uspolitics

Polls were busier than normal but still no lines here in chilly #cville . Lots of smiles for the early hour. Looks like good weather.

@futurebird Many. I worry that part of it is geopolitical pressure. To the extent that the U.S. is willing to step back some other body must step in. That’s broadly a good thing IMO but I could see some problems if despots abuse this (as they abuse the current system)

@kingrat there’s also a giant scale problem. Making tons of little fiefdoms responsible for regulating housing supply without oversight (except some in CA) is not a reasonable path to success. They either need to be coordinated or replaced by something functional

@aral unanimously approved in 2006 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1701?wprov=sfti1

@aral “Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Security Council resolution 1701”

I understand Mr. Trump is promoting discredited scientific racism ideas to direct harm against Americans. This is dangerous and should not be accepted. #uspolitics #eugenics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics?wprov=sfti1#

https://jalopnik.com/massachusetts-introduces-bill-to-legalize-kei-cars-1851647872 “Those adorable little kei cars aren’t hurting anyone, and if anything, more people should be driving cute JDM vans with difficult-to-source parts” #safety #freetrade #massachusetts #kei #keicar

@patrickcmiller “The Justice Department noted that the U.S. was not the only target of the campaigns. The actors sought to also influence populations in Mexico, Germany and Israel in an effort to sway public opinion toward Russian goals.”

@patrickcmiller “foreign adversaries are acutely interested in meddling in our elections, using a wide range of tools to seek their preferred electoral outcomes and stoke division among Americans”